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Months after PMC tells residents not to pay tax dues, many gets notices again
In Kothrud, four citizens received notices served in the name of their housing society, asking for payment of property tax dues by February 28
Despite the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) having asked residents not to pay property tax dues earlier last year, the civic body has once again served notices to some residents in Pune.
Last month, several Punekars received notices asking them to pay their property tax dues by February 28 in view of the scrapping of 40% tax rebate since 2019. Interestingly, many of these notices were served to the housing societies instead of individual residents.
In Kothrud, four citizens received notices served in the name of their housing society, asking for payment of property tax dues by February 28. Atul Sathe, a resident of Kothrud, said, “After receiving the notices, we went to the PMC ward office which informed us that these notices were generated by the system and every property owner would get them. As I was asked to pay the dues by February 28, I paid ₹27,000 for four years.”
In August last year, PMC commissioner Vikram Kumar had stopped collection of property tax dues pending further orders after over 60,000 citizens received text messages asking them to pay property tax dues in the wake of the decision to scrap 40% tax rebate. Following the PMC chief putting on hold the recovery of dues last year, Pune guardian minister Chandrakant Patil had promised to resolve the issue through a meeting with officials of the urban development department (UDD).
With fresh notices being served to residents now, the Congress has asked the state government to intervene. Congress leader Sanjay Balgude on Tuesday appealed Patil to save the citizens from this additional financial burden.
“Although guardian minister Patil had last year asked the PMC not to recover the dues and the municipal commissioner had also appealed not to pay them, once again the municipal administration has started sending messages for the same,” Balgude said.
Last Friday, Patil too held a meeting with Pune municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar and discussed the property tax and pothole issues in the city.
A senior officer from the PMC said, “We have sent a proposal to the state government to scrap these dues. The proposal is pending with the state government for almost a year. As there is no decision taken so far, PMC has to follow rules.”
A civic official on condition of anonymity said, “PMC had earlier placed a proposal before the general body on taking a call and seeking the state government’s instruction for additional property tax. However, elected members did not take any decision and the house was dissolved. Hence, the administration would need to take a decision ahead of the new financial year.”
Whereas a property tax department official said that the state and court’s instructions will have to be followed.
Since the Panshet dam flood of 1970, the PMC was offering a 40% rebate to owners who stayed put in their own houses instead of renting out their properties while owners were unable to pass on the benefits to tenants. This policy was in place in no other city of Maharashtra except Pune. Later, following the auditor’s report, the state government in 2019 scrapped the discount and directed the PMC to recover the dues from residential properties with retrospective effect. Thereafter, the PMC administration placed a proposal before the general body to restore the rebate and the general body passed a resolution that was sent to the state government in 2021. However, the state government rejected the proposal. In the interim, the PMC also wrote to the state government requesting the latter not to recover concession arrears but implement the same from this year.
